Botanical Impressions in Glass

Roni Shohat

Botanical Impressions in Glass
A Collection of Glass Capsules for Local Plants

Mentor: Noam Dover

The project presents a collection of time capsules made of layered glass that contain native plants. Observing these objects creates both a personal and collective experience, inviting a new perspective on familiar nature. The collection process begins with a limited number of plants, forming a foundation for further cataloging and knowledge-building.

The firing process used for the glass encapsulation of plants, combining fusing and slumping techniques, turns them into intentional inclusions – particles trapped in the material – preserving them as frozen memories in time. As an organic material, the plant undergoes thermal decomposition, leaving a carbon residue that remains unexposed to oxygen. The result is a silhouette of a familiar plant, rendered in white ash. The plant’s deconstruction through the destructive of the firing process eliminates all individual values except for its visual identity, determined by its fixation method.

The amorphous molecular nature of glass allows for a new formulation of preservation and documentation of botanical materials. The chemical imprint left in the glass, resistant to the passage of time, becomes the plant’s lasting impression.